It seems that OneCare, Microsoft’s subscription based anti-malware/backup/management tool is on it’s way out, according to ArsTechnica.
It seems that as of 30/06/09 (June 30th 2009), retail sales of subscriptions will halt and OneCare will subsequently be replaced by codename “Morro”, a real-time solely anti-malware solution that will be provided Free of Charge.
I get the impression that a lot of people were unhappy with OneCare, so will this make things better?
Mary Jo Foley has a post about the above with more details and also reveals that Microsoft’s “Equipt” package (a version of Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live OneCare and some extras) has been killed off, to the point that MS are recalling existing stock from Circuit City in the US and PC World here in the UK. Microsoft are offering customers a pro-rated refund as well as allowing them to keep Office Home & Student Edition as a perpetual licence.
Ina Fried over at Cnet has got a quote from the Group Product Manager Bryson Gordon:
“It was a very difficult decision for us to shut down Equipt but the fact of the matter is there is this higher order need (to offer free antivirus software)……the decision to end-of-life Equipt was not in any way based with sales performance”.
He went on to say:
“What we really are going to turn our attention to is other places where we can build a software plus service offering of Office like we sold on a subscription basis”
which would tie into Microsoft’s newly re-vitalised S+S plans.
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 
So what happens to all of those who bought Equipt? Do they continue to use their versions of MS Office with no problems?
Yep-the copies of Office can be used indefinitely, as if they had been purchased via a standard FPP route.
Hope that helps?